


roundabout

by taizi



Series: full circle [3]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, nishimura sees yokai, taki and tanuma are hard to fool, there is a confronation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 08:53:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10553542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taizi/pseuds/taizi
Summary: “I mean, he told me to wash the circle off. Kind of implied he didn’t want me doing it again. But he didn’t, uh. Explicitly ask me not to?”





	

Taki slides the door shut with a decisive snap. The small room falls into a half-gloom, lit only by a half-covered window in the back, dust motes drifting lazily over stacked desks and unused cabinets. Tanuma stands at Taki’s shoulder, arms folded and face unreadable, and Satoru feels distinctly ganged up on.

He hasn’t slept in two days, laying awake and trying to ignore the eyes staring at him from his bedroom ceiling. It’s made him a little jumpy, maybe. He’s so tired his head hurts. He wonders if this is how Natsume feels half the time, why he’s always home sick.

“Uh,” Satoru says eloquently, hitching on a smile. “What’s up? Guys? Kinda weird that you – had a room prepared. For. Whatever this is.”

Taki smiles back at him, but her eyes are level and serious. “We need to talk,” she says softly, “about that circle.”

And Satoru thinks, _Oh._

It isn’t very surprising that they know – these two know _everything_ when it comes to Natsume, usually way before anyone else does – so the shock of it comes and goes quickly.

And then he panics.

“I – look, I’m not gonna tell anyone,” Satoru says, shifting a step back. His hand finds a home on his shoulder, where the circle sits innocuously under his shirt. “If that’s what you’re worried about. I’d never tell anyone.”

It takes about two seconds for his friends to go through a shock of their own and then soften, eyes wide and worried for him.

“Oh, Nishimura, no, that’s not what I meant!”

“Of course we trust you,” Tanuma adds with a frown. “Where’d you get the idea we didn’t?”

Satoru motions dumbly around the room. His heart settles, slowly. “Uh. The kidnapping must have – given me the wrong idea, I guess. My bad.”

Tanuma puts a hand on his shoulder and steers him towards the desks. Satoru is a little off-put at the turn this conversation is taking, but when Taki brushes the dust off a desk and hops up to take a seat, he follows suit.

“We know about what happened with Yumemi,” Tanuma says. He’s a really intuitive guy, for all that he can be as socially awkward as Natsume at times, and he’s watching Satoru’s face carefully for some reason. “Natsume said you found one of Taki’s circles, and drew it on your hand.”

“I’ve never tried that.” Taki’s eyes are bright. “I’ll admit I’ve thought about it, but it seemed so _risky._ ”

“To be fair, I didn’t know it was a magic circle the first time.”

Tanuma’s eyes sharpen, and Satoru knows he’s misstepped but he doesn’t know _how_ until the taller boy says, “The first time?”

Satoru sits very still and tries to think of a lie. He’s gotten better at those, lately, but it takes him a beat too long to answer, and Taki says, “I knew it!”

She doesn’t sound angry. Satoru risks a look at her, and finds her beaming.

“Natsume thought that that first encounter was enough to make you sensitive to yokai,” she explains, “and _that’s_ why you’ve been acting so strange. He feels really bad. He’s been trying to keep them away from you, but there’s only so much he can do.”

It kind of makes Satoru want to smile, how they defend him even when there’s nothing to defend him from. He doesn’t think they’re even aware of it. Which is fair enough, really, since he and Kitamoto and Tsuji are all the same way.

“I don’t want him to feel bad,” he says slowly. “I mean, he told me to wash the circle off. Kind of implied he didn’t want me doing it again. But he didn’t, uh. Explicitly ask me not to?”

Taki and Tanuma trade a quick look, and Taki says, “So you’ve kept a circle on you all this time? And it’s worked?”

Satoru nods carefully. Taki inches closer. 

“Natsume made us promise not to draw it on ourselves or each other,” Tanuma says dryly. There’s a quirk to the corners of his mouth that reminds Satoru of the reluctantly amused way Kitamoto will smile at him when Satoru gets them both into trouble. Annoyed, and overly fond despite himself, and meeting comfortably somewhere in the middle. “He doesn’t want us more involved than we have to be. He doesn’t really understand that we _want_ to be troubled with what troubles him.”

“Well, it’s kind of,” Satoru says, and stops, and tries again, “I mean, it’s one thing to see creepy stuff every now and then but when it’s constant, it’s kind of a lot. You know?”

“But you could make it stop if you wanted to,” Taki counters him. “And you haven’t wanted to. Even though it’s taking a toll on you. Why?”

“It’s not – no, I’m fine.” Satoru looks between them quizzically. “I mean, _yeah,_ like, it’s really hard keeping this under wraps, but I can talk to you two about it now, can’t I? So that -- that'll help.”

They’re both looking at him strangely, these really hard, heavy looks that Satoru can’t make sense of, and then they seem to have a conversation between the two of them without speaking at all. 

Finally, Tanuma produces a marker. “Natsume never said we couldn’t ask you to draw it for us,” he says plainly. “With as much practice as you’ve had with it at this point, you’re probably as good as Taki by now.”

“And also, I’m not really sure which variation of the seeing circle you found,” Taki admits sheepishly. “We can’t replicate it without your help.”

Satoru blinks at the marker for a few seconds, and then up at his friends. It sort of feels a little bit like they’re taking advantage of Natsume’s trust in them. Satoru knows he’d be desperately unhappy to find out Satoru is still wearing the circle, and even _moreso_ to realize he’s shared it with Taki and Tanuma, too. 

But Natsume would pardon those two any manner of wrongdoing, any number of times. Satoru will make sure he’s standing between them when the time comes to own up to their friend, and maybe some of that unconditional forgiveness will come his way, too.

He takes the marker. 

“Just so you know, I have about a thousand questions,” Satoru says importantly, arching an eyebrow. “Questions like, how long have you known about yokai? And how the heck did you get your hands on seeing circles in the first place? And can I please call one of you when there’s a ghost walking across my bedroom ceiling in the middle of the night?”

Tanuma shrugs out of his uniform jacket, offering a short-sleeved arm for Satoru to draw on. He’s smiling, soft and wide and kind, as he says, “You have my number.”

Satoru turns at a touch to his shoulder, to find Taki smiling at him in much the same way. 

“And mine,” she says.


End file.
